Monday, November 19, 2012

Hannah's Light

Through this blog, we hope to give her a voice and share her story with the rest of the world.

None of us have ever been the same since she entered our lives.

Our hope is that, through our stories and thoughts and prayers about Hannah, you too will be touched by her story in some way.

To start off, we'll introduce you to her.

The following is from an article one of us wrote for the local newspaper in 2001, when Hannah was about a year old...

After my daughter, Rachel, was born in 1998, Sue and I planned on having no more children - for
a number of reasons. We had planned a sterilization procedure
immediately following Rachel’s birth, but the procedure was just
cost-prohibitive enough at the time to postpone it. So, we did. It
was several months after that, at the end of particularly enjoyable
day with Rachel, Ellie, and Jesse, that I remarked to Sue,
tongue-in-cheek, that “we should have another one.” I expected
something like, “no way, Jose’.” But I was not prepared for
Sue’s response:

“Are you
serious?”

I
wasn’t…until that moment. We began to pray and ask God for
guidance, and we both felt led to expand our family by one more head.
It was then that I began to get the sense that God was involved in
this in a very unique way. There were no dreams, no burning bushes,
no visits from angels - just a sense to go ahead with a fourth. So,
we did. And Sue became pregnant in early January 2000.

A month
later, the sense took on a new tone when Sue miscarried. It didn’t
seem like a huge loss to us emotionally, and we didn’t talk about
it a whole lot outside our home. But suddenly we were questioning
our wisdom from God. We prayed a lot. We talked with our doctor.
And, we still sensed a green light to go ahead. So, we did. And the
sense of the divine increased when many people began to pray for this
new unborn child. I can’t recall that any unborn child was prayed
for as much as Hannah was - our church friends, our oldest two
children, people in the community, out-of-state family, and of
course, Sue & I. Prayers ascended daily on behalf of this little
one. On top of that, her big brother Jesse wanted to be present at
the delivery - his idea. Our doc was cautious, but his conditions
were met, and Jesse helped me coach and comfort his mother through
the labor and delivery. And he passed with flying colors as a
supportive big brother, complete with his Bugs Bunny scrubs.

And here was
little six-pound Hannah, with a slightly deformed right hand,
and….what? A heart murmur? We had to take her to Grand Forks for
an echocardiogram before we ever took her home. And the result:
Tetrology of Fallot. What was that? A poem? Oh - she needs
open-heart surgery? I see. Oh, and yes, let’s be thorough and run
her through some genetic tests. The tests revealed that Hannah has
something called Turner Syndrome, the effects of which we won’t
know until she’s older. Possible problems with kidneys, fertility,
stunted growth, and other heart problems. We questioned our family
doc, the pediatrician, and the Mayo Clinic specialists with the
natural question, “What caused this?” Their head-scratching
answer:

“We don’t
know; you did everything you were supposed to do. It could be
hereditary, but we can’t nail down a cause or explain this
medically.”

The next
natural question(s):

“Did God
not hear all the prayers?“

“Did He
forget to bless Hannah?”

“Did we somehow sin and bring these things upon her?”

Again
- it might be wishful thinking, or my preacher’s imagination, but I
think God has
blessedHannah
- and us - in some kind of unique way. Snicker if you want - “Donn’s
watched ‘Prince of Egypt’ one too many times.” Could be. But
at this point in time - on this day after Hannah’s benefit supper
at the church building, where an army of volunteers set up, cooked,
brought tables & chairs, went on the radio, and put up posters
around town - I think that God is doing something extraordinary.
From all over the community, checks are showing up from people that I
didn’t tell about this - a bank, a neighbor, an acquaintance, the
post office - to help with the upcoming surgery expense. It was
estimated that over 250 people showed up yesterday to eat soup and
give money to the cause.

Hannah
herself is the most social and communicative baby I’ve ever seen,
even though her slow growth and development is evident. For someone
who wasn’t planned to be conceived, she sure seems set apart.
For someone who was sacrificed for by her unborn miscarried brother
or sister, she in her short five months of life has generated as much
faith in me than any sermon I’ve heard or preached. And, here’s
something we didn’t even realize until we filled out forms for her
heart exam: her initials (Hannah Isabel Schroeder) spell HIS. For a
child who seems “ordinary” in the scheme of the world, she sure
has a string of peculiar, perhaps holy
events surrounding her life. Coincidences? Maybe, but I don’t
believe so. I may be way off base. I may be speaking foolishly as a
prophet who knows not the future. But I believe that God is up to
something really cool in Hannah’s life. Call it coincidence if you
want; I’m calling it divine, as in Romans 8: 28 - “and
we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love
Him, who have been called according to His purpose.”

3 comments:

A wonderful article! I wish I could meet Hannah and her family someday- she seems like such a beautiful person. I'm sure we can be good friends since we're about the same age. I had a great time with Stilwater (: She led me here.

My mom was born with Tetrology of Fallot too. they told her that she wasnt going to live long and even if she did, she would never have children.Well, my mom is strong and now has 8 kids and is pregnant with number 9. God can do anything.

And I really love this blog. Its so amazing and inspiring. It truly is. I'll be praying for you guys and Hannah. God certainly is with you.